If you are feeling the Monday blues, this peaceful photograph of a Patagonian lake might be just what you need to light up your day. Patagonia is known for its rich volcanic history and dramatic landscapes, and this scene is no exception. It shows a lake in the Pali-Aike volcanic field on the Argentina-Chile border, located north of the Strait of Magellan: the beautiful Laguna Potrok Aike. Agathe ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: The beauty of energy
Electric cars require roughly 1,000 times more lithium than a standard laptop. It is therefore understandable that Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni, a unique environment shown here under deep-blue skies, is widely regarded as the ‘Saudi Arabia of lithium’, because it contains over 40% of the planet’s lithium chloride (LiCl) reserves, or more than 5.4 million tons. The Salar is part of the Altiplano platea ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: The strangest volcano on Earth
Natural Geographic describes Ol Donyo Lengai (pronounced ol doyn-yo len-guy), a mountain in northern Tanzania, as the ‘strangest volcano on Earth’. It is the planet’s only volcano known to produce lava made of natrocarbonatite, chemically similar to laundry soap, which hardens and decays almost immediately upon exposure to the atmosphere. It is very rare for natrocarbonatite, a type of igneous roc ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: Turquoise paradise
Jacques Cousteau once said, “I have seen other places like Sipadan, 45 years ago, but now no more. Now we have found an untouched piece of art.” Indeed, the ‘wall of life’ shown in this picture suggests an untouched world, where schools of fish abound in a pure turquoise ocean. The waters around Pulau Sipadan (Sipadan Island) are globally recognised as some of the most diverse on the planet, playi ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: Cueva de los Verdes
The volcanic Lanzarote is the easternmost of the Canary Islands, located in the Atlantic Ocean approximately 125 km off the coast of Africa. One of its most famous attractions is the system of caves known as La Cueva de los Verdes (Greens’ Cave), created around 3,000-4,500 years ago by lava from the now extinct Monte Corona volcano. La Cueva de los Verdes extends for 6 km above sea level and for a ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: Sunset on the Black Sea coast
In the context of human history, few bodies of water are as storied as the Black Sea, located at the juncture of Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Countless cargo ships and frigates have sailed its waters, over 1,100 km in length from east to west, daunting enough that the Ancient Greeks believed its eastern shores (now Georgia) marked the edge of the known world. However, perhaps the Black Sea’s ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: The broken heart
We humans have a tendency to see familiar shapes in things such as animals in clouds, faces on Mars, and even food in rocks. The photographer, Natalia Rudaya saw a broken heart in a curious Taiwanese rock, the centrepiece of the beautiful photograph we are featuring this week. Aside from its interesting shape, the Broken Heart rock has strange dents, which tell of its geological history. These for ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: Jökulsárlón
This photo of an awe-inspiring icy landscape is without a doubt one of the best we have ever featured in our weekly Imaggeo on Mondays. The Icelandic glacial lagoon Jökulsárlón is gloomy and cold. Yet the brilliant blue of the ice and the turquoise of the water stand out beautifully in this image, giving it a je-ne-sais-quoi of magic. The photographer, János Kovács, a geologist at the University o ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: Water or new iridescent fluid?
At ambient conditions, water is an odourless, tasteless, transparent liquid. It’s a vital fluid yet it has very simple properties. Unlike soap bubbles, for example, water is not iridescent – it does not appear to change colour when we view it from different angles. Unless, of course, there is something colourful in the background that the water reflects giving it an apparent iridescence. Thi ...[Read More]
Imaggeo on Mondays: Cordillera del Paine
Images such as the one above inspire scientists and nature lovers alike. This photograph, showing a Chilean landscape with elements representative of various Earth-science disciplines, is simply stunning. In a beautiful mix of shapes and colours, a quiet lake with floating icebergs appears tucked in between a roughed mountain in the background and a colourful double rainbow in the foreground. The ...[Read More]